After hours of meeting and consultation of the Nigeria Governors Forum, on Friday, which latter extended to the early hours of Saturday in Abuja, state governors bowed to Labour's demand for increased salary, promising to pay the N18,000 minimum remuneration to their workers.
Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, who is also the governor of Rivers State, Mr. Chibuke Amaechi, said they have agreed to comply with the provisions of the Minimum Wage Act.
Amaechi said, "We , the governors of the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, at our meeting held on July 15, 2011 at the Rivers State Governors Lodge under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors Forum deliberated over a number of issues and resolved as follows:
"On the issue of minimum wage, the Forum resolved to comply with the provisions of the Minimum Wage Act and further agreed that individual states should commence implementation modalities.
"You see, there is no way we can on our own, develop our states without the cooperation of the workers. In fact, we see them as partners and that is why we are appealing to them to shelve their proposed strike.
"There is no need for it again because we have all agreed to pay them the minimum wage, which we also considered to be a law and as law enforcers in our different sates, we won't go against the law."
Perhaps with the Governors' decision, the proposed three-day warning strike, canvassed by the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress billed to start on Wednesday may, after all, no hold.